Abstract
Orientation: Students’ membership and participation in social networking sites, such as Facebook, has increased in recent years.Research purpose: The study examined students’ access to social network sites and compared male and female students’ usage of Facebook with regards to time commitment, privacy concerns, and the creation and/or maintenance of relationships.Motivation: The study adds to the existing academic literature on this topic by providing a South African perspective.Research design, approach and method: Two-hundred self-administered questionnaires were distributed using convenience sampling. The statistical analysis that was used included Mann-Whitney U-test, t-test and ANOVA analysis.Main findings: Students connect to social networking sites everyday primarily via their mobile phones. Female students reported spending more time on Facebook whilst at the same time expressing more concern for their privacy. Moreover, students were found to use Facebook to maintain existing offline friendships more so than creating new relationships.Managerial implications: Social networking sites such as Facebook play an important role in students’ everyday interpersonal communication. Practically, Facebook provides lecturers, parents and businesses the opportunity to communicate with students in a fast and cost-effective way. Therefore, insight into the variables studied could help marketers and Social Network Site operators to manage privacy concerns in order to effectively target, advertise and communicate with students.Contribution: Although past research has concentrated on the study of Facebook in terms of privacy and members’ uses little research has been conducted on gender differences in this regard, more so within a South African context. Furthermore demographic variables such as gender influence motives and behaviour, as such making the analysis demographics essential.
Highlights
The Internet provides a platform through which university students can make use of computermediated communication (CMC) applications such as email, instant messaging and social network sites (Vrocharidou & Efthymiou 2012)
Past research has concentrated on the study of Facebook in terms of privacy (Acquisti & Gross 2006; Debatin et al 2009; Hoy & Milne 2010; Lewis, Kaufman & Christakis 2008) and members’ uses (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe 2007; Hew 2011; Pempek et al 2009; Valenzuela, Park & Kee 2009), little research has been conducted on gender differences in this regard, especially within a South African context
The results indicated that female university students spent more time on Facebook on a daily basis (M = 33.47, SD = 16.32) than their male counterparts (M = 19.0, SD = 33.20)
Summary
The Internet provides a platform through which university students can make use of computermediated communication (CMC) applications such as email, instant messaging and social network sites (Vrocharidou & Efthymiou 2012). According to Vrocharidou and Efthymiou (2012), university students are avid CMC users with social network sites (SNSs) representing the fastestgrowing and most popular Internet-based technology amongst young people (Roblyer et al 2010). They provide an easy and accessible virtual environment through which one can interact and communicate with others within and beyond their societal and geographical proximities (Kim, Sohn & Choi 2011; Pempek, Yermolayeva & Calvert 2009). Past research has concentrated on the study of Facebook in terms of privacy (Acquisti & Gross 2006; Debatin et al 2009; Hoy & Milne 2010; Lewis, Kaufman & Christakis 2008) and members’ uses (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe 2007; Hew 2011; Pempek et al 2009; Valenzuela, Park & Kee 2009), little research has been conducted on gender differences in this regard, especially within a South African context
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